When we consider Film Noir and all its extensive elements there is one that stands out from the rest, even hours after the film is over and that is the loneliness and corruption, not of the characters but of the city in which they live or die. The cities of Noir are filled with desperation and hopelessness, drenched in a world of dark, looming shadows. More than often it is nightfall and to add to the already nightmarish atmosphere that sweeps through these cities, it is raining. People appear from alleyways, bars and nightclubs, often running from danger into even more sinister danger. Action takes place in abandoned warehouses, industrial areas, near train stations, down dark streets, behind closed doors away from the publicly busy streets. The city becomes a character, it is infected with lies, violence and insecurity, and it is fatal and unstable. The city contains a life of its own; it is filled with energy, temptation and destruction. Characters are isolated and alienated on the main streets; there is no comfort, no security and most importantly there is nowhere to hide. In the course of my investigation into the Dark City of Film Noir, I am going to consider the city of classic Noir and its progression to contemporary Noir and European Noir before finally becoming the Neo-Noirs that are still being made today. By exploring the change from black and white to colour, by considering the city as a character and how the city developed throughout the course of the Noir films I hope to present a vision of the Noir city. “Not the real city, but the dangerous and sad city of the imagination which is so much more important, which is the modern world.”[1]
Classic Noir and the Dark City
In the films of Classic Noir the most dominant cities were Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago. California was the prime location as it is often seen as the American state filled with sunshine, money and sex, all the illusions of the American Dream. Yet film directors at this time wanted to take this idealized image of the dream society and get to the core of reality that was the 20th Century. America was hit with economic depression in the 1930s and the devastation of World War II had a massive impact on all of society. People were growing tired of the unrealistic images of cinema and longed for reality to makes it way into films. The 1940s were a time of great change in America, the image of the city began to move away from the perfect dream city to a modern wasteland of secrets and crime. The terror and seduction of these big cities began to appear in the paintings and works of Reginald Marsh, Martin Lewis and Edward Hopper amongst others. They focused on the city and created an individual style that blended Expressionism with American Realism. “In mood their work ranges from the austere images of isolation in paintings by Hopper to the bustling crowds by Reginald Marsh to the tense city scenes in the black and white lithographs of Martin Lewis.”[2]
The above images appealed to the Noir directors as they emphasized a busy city life but underneath the surface lies a sense of emptiness and isolation that can be found in a crowded room, on a busy street, in a city filled with people. The cities in the paintings and the films are a potent force, a ‘Labyrinth’ or maze where there is no sense of life outside the frame.
From Black and White to Colour: The Neo-Noir City
When the period of Classic Noir ended in the 1950s with the apocalyptic explosion at the end of Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich 1955), it seemed that Noir could never be recovered. However Noir did not disappear, rather it escaped to Europe and Japan before finally returning to America in the 1970s. Although many of the styles and techniques of Classic Noir remained within Neo-Noir, there were some major differences that gave Neo-Noir its own individual and unique style that has remained to the present day. In the Classic Noirs we see the city in black and white; it is mysterious, surreal and the shadows create an impending sense of doom lurking at every corner. “One of the best is Bogart playing Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep(Howard Hawks 1946), walking dark and lonely streets, interviewing suspects, never believing any of them.”[3] Yet the rain swept, emptiness of these black and white cities were soon replaced with harsh, devastating colours of the Neo-Noir city. These colorful cities created unbearable tension onscreen and the city itself suddenly came into sharper focus. The protagonist, instead of trying to escape from the entrapment of the city, is now trying to find him or herself within the modern city. There is still the sense of paranoia and isolation roaming the streets of the Neo-Noir city, and that inevitable fact that the city remains dominant and controlling within the soul of the characters. “Even though the city may be dissolving before our very eyes-the detective still remains hopelessly trapped, for he can never escape the illusions of his own mind.”[4]
The Power of California
Before the development of Film Noir in the 1940s, Orson Welles claimed Los Angeles was “simply a bright, guilty place without a murderous shadow or mean street in sight.”[5] However this soon about to change and Los Angeles was to become the heart of the Noir film. It was Raymond Chandler who carved the streets of the Noir city; from the deserted streets, to the silent, empty buildings, the early morning dim light and the dark, creeping shadows that created a tormented sense of the city and its characters. Chandler’s detective novels were transformed into some of the greatest Film Noirs of the 1940s and 1950s and the city became the central focus.
Key Locations
- Nightclubs
- Bars and Hotels
- Private-eye Offices
- Drug Stores
- Train Stations
- Police Stations
- Industrial areas
- Vast range of housing from mansions to flats
Each location represented the characters and the cities corruption that seeped into their lives and dominated everything they did. They seem to be cut off from the real world, lost in a big city filled with terror and seduction.
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944) is set in Los Angeles, using on location shooting to highlight the intensity of the characters and the action. “The opening scene, Walter’s car racing unsteadily through the nighttime city, is followed by a flashback set on a sunny afternoon in a Spanish style house in Pasadena.”[6] The city in Double Indemnity is consumed in darkness and betrayal, “the air is thick with sex, and catastrophe.”[7] Walter (Fred MacMurray) and Phyllis (Barbara Stanswyck) encounter each other in a large house with the sunlight casting shadows through the Venetian blinds, they arrange to meet again in a local, seemingly innocent drug store to plan their murder, they find themselves with the dead body on the train tracks, they are nearly caught in Walter’s flat and eventually they find themselves back were they first met intent on killing each other. Their nearly perfect crime takes place at night on the railway tracks just outside Los Angeles; both Walter and Phyllis are drenched in shadow, both are emotionless and soon are to become suspended in limbo, like the city that surrounds them.
In The Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941) and The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks 1946) the city appears not to exist as most of the action occurs behind closed doors. The city feels lifeless and far away, it is “shown in a narrow and subtly stylized way- in Robert Warshow’s resonant phrase, they are ‘cities of the imagination’.”[8] We gain glimpses of San Francisco through the Venetian blinds; there is a life outside the office window but like the protagonist, the audience is cut off from the real world.
In Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur 1947) and Touch of Evil (Orson Welles 1958) we see a shift from the city alone and find ourselves in the countryside and Mexico. Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past has left the seductive, entrapment of the city to find salvation in rural, small town America. This is the reversal of the American Dream, which is core to the desolation found in the city of Film Noir. People fled to the cities after the Dust Bowl of the 1930s in search for work and stability, yet what they discovered was vastly different to the image of the American Dream which dominated America at this time. The cities were not like the Golden Hollywood movies; life was hard, living standards were poor, work was not easily available, the dream was only a dream and this is what was portrayed in the Noir cities. The innocence of the countryside in Out of the Past is corrupted by the overwhelming presence of the city within Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) and his past. There is not escaping the past, just like there is no escape from the city.
In Touch of Evil Orson Welles, “depicts a Mexican border town…as a hothouse of filth and corruption, its buildings and people rotting away in the steamy Mexican climate.”[9] Once again the theme of the American Dream is brought into focus; America versus Mexico, rich versus poor, order versus corruption. There is a lurking menace roaming the streets of this Mexican town, everything is corrupted and dangerous and this is emphasized by the use of shadows, creating visual tension and terror. “This ugly Mexican community is the most pestilential of the Noir cities.”[10]
The Big ‘Rotten’ Apple
“A living, breathing entity, New York is an unparalleled movie star-as romantic as Garbo, as funny as Woody, as violent as Scorsese, as beautiful as The Godfather.”[11]
In The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston 1950) the opening shot shows a deserted New York at the brink of dawn. There is no sound, no movement and no people to be heard or seen, it is almost surreal as New York is the city that never sleeps. Yet beneath the silent, empty streets you know that there is some evil, disastrous, corrupted scheme being plotted; The Asphalt Jungle is the city under the city. Throughout The Asphalt Jungle there is a sense that the city is closing in around its characters and its audience. Small, dark alleyways, bleak buildings, and underground sewers create visual metaphors of entrapment and enclosure…“If you want fresh air don’t look for it in this town.”[12] The use of jungle in the title suggests that only the fittest survive in this city and this becomes clear in the course of the film, however ironically no one survives. Similarly to Out of the Past, Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) attempts to escape to the country in order to outrun the police and try to survive. Yet in a strange twist of fate, although not uncommon in Noirs, he dies in a green field, surrounded by horses, not in the city like the other characters. It is possible to see this film as a western that was simply moved into an urban environment but ultimately returned to its roots and that is the “green, green grass of home.”[13] The contrast between the urban and rural environments is somehow suggesting that the countryside may not be as natural, beautiful or innocent as these characters believe. The city is always within these Noir protagonists, no matter how far they run they are always drawn back to the rotting city or they either die trying to escape it.
New York is also the setting for The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick 1957) and becomes almost a character within this film. The city is congested; there is a sense of life and excitement within the busy streets and looming tower blocks. It is a film about big city power and corruption; one of the most powerful shots, emphasizing the importance of the city, is when J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) stands on his balcony looking over New York, which he sees as his city and claims, “I love this dirty town!”[14] He is an extremely powerful New York columnist, who has been corrupted by the city in which he lives and works. The Sweet Smell of Success is one of the classic Noirs that shows the very essence of the turmoil of American society. The city is there as the bases in which the protagonist can extend his power and control, not just over the other characters, but over the city itself. The Sweet Smell of Success “is an acerbic, dynamic and intense film that exposes the diseased under-side of New York City's glamorous night life, revealing brutality, capriciousness, greed, evil, psychological violence, corrupt American ambition, betrayal and cynicism.”[15]
In Killer’s Kiss (Stanley Kubrick 1955) also set in New York can be seen as an “art-movie noir.”[16] Kubrick used the style of New York street photograph, images of dancers and it appears somewhat like a “sadomasochistic fantasy.” The image of New York becomes surreal in the course of Killer’s Kiss, yet it plays an important role as we see the city weighing down on the characters lives. “The dancers look like waxworks figures; they’re more dead than alive, bowed down under the burdens of city life.”[17]
The Harsh Reality of the Colourful City
The Neo-Noir city exposed the corrupted underside of the American Dream during a time of political and social upheaval across the world. The 1960s and 1970s had been decades of protest riots, wars, battles between superpowers and nuclear power as well as economic decline and social change. There was a need for realism in cinema once again, and Neo-Noir captured and expanded on this world chaos and it is reflected within these films. We return to Los Angeles in Chinatown (Roman Polanski 1974), this time in a range of dominant colours emphasizing the drought ridden Californian state. Chinatown expands the city and the surrounding countryside, similarly The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman 1974), expands the city to include the beaches in the Los Angeles area. Neo-Noir is emphasizing that the city is constantly growing, the characters becoming lost in the sheer size and remoteness of Los Angeles. The city in both Chinatown and The Long Goodbye is airless; the use of certain colours such as red, gray, brown and black highlight the intensity of the action as well as the city. The city “is sweltering, ripped apart by blistering heat,”[18] within these films; yet there remains a cold presence within the characters as they try to find their place in this heartless city. “L.A. becomes a city of infinite possibilities but no realization, no end point.”[19]
In Taxi Diver (Martin Scorsese 1976), New York is almost a character itself. In the opening scene we see, “through a rainy taxicab windshield, we see the rainy, slick streets, an allegorical underworld vision composed of hustlers and derelicts, and a foreshadowing of the future tone of the film.”[20] New York with its flashing neon lights, corrupted, dangerous streets filled with sex and betrayal reflects Travis Bickle’s (Robert De Niro) tortured, uncontrollable state of mind. The New York in Taxi Driver is a city of the imagination; it creates paranoia not only within the characters but also within the audience. We are left feeling uneasy, unsure of the city and everything it represents. The protagonist is rejected by the city which surrounds him, reflecting back to the city of the Classic Noir. “Becoming increasingly isolated, he violently lashes out at the perceived decadence and filth of the city.”[21]
The Noir City
In Film Noir the city is the heart and soul of the characters, the action and the impending outcome of survival or death. There is no escape, the city draws you in and catches you off guard, knocking you to the dirty ground. It is a place were violence can erupt at anytime, it is enclosed with crime and ultimately it is deadly fatal. From Classic Noir to Neo-Noir they city is a throbbing presence, without it there would be no Noir. The cities appear on the brink of explosion, like the characters that are trapped within the dark, empty, lonely streets. The city is not a background, it is filled with poisonous energy, it is sinful; “a seething environment in which the haunted hero seeks refuge, with no success.”[22] Like the characters the city is seductive, deceptive and corrupted; whether in black and white or in colour, the city is suffocating, slowly killing off those who gets in its way. “A dark street in the early morning hours, splashed with a sudden downpour-lamps form haloes in the murk. In the walk-up room, filled with intermittent flashing of a neon sign from across the street, a man is waiting to murder or be murdered…”[23]
[1] Clarke B.David The Cinematic City (Routledge London & New York 1997) Chapter 4 pg 83-100
[2] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001) pg 83
[3] Conard Mark The Philosophy of Neo-Noir (The University of Kentucky 2007) pg 7
[4] Conard Mark The Philosophy of Neo-Noir (The University of Kentucky 2007) pg 19
[5] Clarke B.David The Cinematic City (Routledge London & New York 1997) Chapter 4 pg 83-100
[6] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)
[7] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)
[8] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)
[9] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)pg 79
[10] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)pg 79
[11] Germano Celant Tribeca Talks-Tribeca Film Festival (Fondazione Prada, Italy, May 2004)
[12] The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston 1950)
[13] http://www.simplyangel.com/greengreengrassofhome.htm
[14] The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick 1957)
[15] http://www.filmsite.org/sweet.html
[16] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)
[17] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)
[18] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)pg82
[19] http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/54/noirlaser.htm
[20] http://www.filmsite.org/taxi
[21] http://www.msu.edu/user/svobada/taxi_driver/
[22] Hirsch Foster The Dark Side of the Screen Film Noir (Da Capo Press 2001)
[23] Silver Alain & Ursini James Film Noir Reader 2 (Limelight Editions New York 2003)pg75